Austrian Goulash & Semmel Knoedel (Bread dumplings)

I have several recipes to share with you, but today, I'm starting with the star of the show-- Austrian Goulash and Semmel Knoedel. This is a dish that I have never seen in a German restaurant in the United States. It's a dish that is very common in Southern Germany and Austria. Think of this as a beef stew, with a rich tomato sauce that is seasoned with paprika and some caraway seeds. My favorite way of enjoying this dish is with semmel knoedel (KA-NEW-DEL). The dumpling is cut in half, and into bite-size pieces to soak up the gravy. Heaven! My second favorite way is to serve this with spaetzle.

I like to use two thinly sliced onions, which is a perfect job for my mandoline.

Hungarian Hot Paprika is a key ingredient for this sauce. I found it, easily, at my local grocery store.

The aromatics are hot paprika, sweet paprika, sliced garlic lemon zest, caraway seeds, kosher salt & pepper, tomato paste and tomato sauce. The key to this dish is to sear the meat to leave lots of brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Later, I'll deglaze all of that with chicken stock.

If you haven't had success with searing meat, here's a quick review on how to do it:

You will need a large Dutch oven with a lid for best results. Add just enough olive oil to coat the pan and turn the heat high enough to make the oil shimmer, but not smoke.

Add one piece of meat to the hot oil to make sure that it sizzles. Add the remaining meat, without crowding the pan and sear for about 3–4 minutes per side.

You want a golden crust that will give the gravy great flavor.
Cook the meat in batches, if necessary and set aside in a bowl—to collect the juice.

Look at all that flavor on the bottom of the pan!

Save the juices from the meat-- it's more flavor for the sauce

When all the meat is seared, turn the heat to medium and add a little more olive oil to the pan and cook the onion until tender—3–4 minutes. Add the sliced garlic and cook till fragrant—30 seconds or so.
Add the tomato paste and paprika, and cook for 1–2 minutes.

Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes and taste for seasoning. Adjust as necessary. If the sauce is too thick, thin with a little more chicken stock or water until it is the consistency of a gravy.

Simmer for 2 hours, or you can use a slow cooker for 4–6 hours.

This tureen came from my great-grandmother-- it's over 100 years old and I love it!

I realized, last night, that I have always made these recipes from memory-- just the way my mother taught me. This is the first time I've measured and tried to create recipes for anyone who might want to try Bavarian recipes. How I wish my mother was alive to see this. These recipes bring back so many fond memories. My two brothers, niece and my son enjoyed it so much-- and that makes all those hours of standing in a kitchen worth all the effort. We spent the rest of the evening remembering my mother's life during WWII and her adventures in Bavaria at that time. We are all storytellers around a table full of good food and beer!

My husband deserves a special hug for helping me. I realized that I didn't take one picture of him! Sorry, Sweetie! At least you were in German food heaven-- which I know he loves. He even puts up with my goofy siblings, but we always have fun.

Happy Oktoberfest! I hope you try to make your own.

I always post a printable recipe card at
the end of each recipe post. If you cannot view it, you might be using
an older version of InternetExplorer. You should be able to view my
recipe cards with Safari, Mozilla, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.If you still can't view the recipe card, all of my recipes are stored on Key Ingredient, by clicking here.

33 comments:

Velva
said...

The Goulash looks wonderful. That is a perfect Sunday supper. I need to put this recipe in my must make file. very nice!By the way, I ad to take a double take when I saw the printed vest. The first thought I had was whoa-are those hers?

That potato salad has me drooling!I am hysterical with the knudel apron! I am glad you put a caption underneath, because I thought you bought some new boobs and were showing them off for Oktoberfest! You made my day Deb!

Velva, I wish you had an email so I can say "thanks" for your compliment.

It seems that my dirndl vest has been a big hit! For those of you who asked me (privately) where I got it:http://www.oktoberfesthaus.com/product/66232/Plastic_Oktoberfest_German_Vest__Fraulein_Dirndl.html

thanks for sharing these great family recipes. How wonderful to have your own Oktoberfest tradition. The Goulash looks wonderful and it's great to know that I'm learning a recipe that's not something I could find easily.

I'm looking forward to your knoedel recipe. I love dumplings of all sorts!

Hi Debby, On this simple Friday evening, while the guys are watching football on TV, my mother was commenting on how much she loves "goulash" and your photos....however, we could not find the ingredients or procedures....what did we miss in your post? It looks simply magnificent! Love, Roz

Snowed in today in Pennsylvania, my husband and I decided to try to make your goulash and bread dumplings – and they turned out beautifully. They taste just like we had on our honeymoon in Austria in November. THANK YOU!!!

This recipe (Goulash & Semel Knoedel) was always a childhood favorite of mine - I always used to help my Oma make it when I was little, but a lot of the details have faded with time. This sounds exactly right, though (even down to how we'd use the leftovers the next day). I'll be making this today - thank you so much for posting the recipe, and I look forward to the other German recipes you'll be posting. :)

Debby, every time I come to your blog, I always come to this recipe to "visit" it because it looks so damn delicious! I have to make it one day. I made something similar once, but it didn't look as delicious as yours! Best,GloriaP.S. That is a beautiful tureen that you have too.

Oh Debby, you are a gal after my heart! What delicious cookin' is going on at your house. After my trip to Prague and Germany this fall I have set out to find a recipe for Goulash and Dumplings....I thank you for the goulash and I can hardly wait for the dumplings...

Thank you so much for sharing your Mutti's Austrian Goulash recipe! I made this last weekend in my crock pot and it was absolutely phenomenal! My Southern German husband said it was just like back home, and the meat just melted in your mouth. Served it with some homemade spatzle. I will definitely be trying more recipes from your blog to continue to improve my 'German house-wife' skills! :D

I have some good family fiends in Austria and so often eat goulash when I visit them, I love it but have never been able to replicate that taste in my own kitchen (in the UK).

Last night I used this recipe to cook for my university friends and it was fantastic! It tasted just like my Austrian friends make it and reminded me of my holidays! It also went down very well with my friends here. So thank you for your blog and recipes!

I cannot wait to try the potato salad, I'm making it today for Memorial Day. I have to share with you that after reading a few of your posts, I stumbled on this page with your apron. I am laughing so hard right now as I did not read the blurb below the picture till way later. I finally figured it out but it gave me quite a start before I did.

My boyfriend has always talked about the goulash that his grandmother used to make for him, so I decided to make it for his upcoming birthday. He was raised by his grandparents, and remembers smelling the goulash cooking on the stove all day long and not being able to concentrate on anything else! I hope this comes close to his grandmother's recipe from Austria! I'm hoping our slow cooker will do the trick, rather than a stew pot!

Welcome!

Welcome to my internet kitchen. Please, sit back and relax, and watch me make delicious food and bakery recipes. Most of my recipes are simple, flavorful meals-- and a few baked treats. I focus on using fresh, seasonal ingredients and I try to avoid using boxed mixes and processed foods. I'm having fun learning how to cook like my grandmother once did-- from scratch! I hope that my step-by-step photos will inspire a timid cook to try them. Even if you're a seasoned cook, hopefully you'll learn a new tip or two.

If you have any questions,or just want to say "hello", please feel free to email me: foodiewife@gmail.com

For Potato Lovers (Like Me)

Grab A Button

Do you "Pinterest"?

Privacy Policy

This policy is valid from 30 August 2014

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.